Higher Rates of Cigarette Smoking in Male Adolescents Before the Onset of Schizophrenia: A Historical-Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Taken together with the existing data on abnormalities in nicotinic transmission in patients and their relatives, this higher prevalence of smoking in future schizophrenia patients, before the onset of their illness, might indicate that impaired nicotinic neurotransmission is involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.